Endurance rides: a route from how long and how hard
Most endurance rides start with two numbers: how much time you have and how hard you want to ride. The route usually comes last, and it’s often the same loop as last week, a bit too hilly for Zone 2 or a bit too short for the time you have. This guide covers how to turn a time and an effort into a route that fits both.
Start from time, not distance
Distance is a poor way to plan an endurance ride. The same 60 km takes two hours on a flat valley road and close to three in the hills, at the same effort. If you have 2 h 30, plan 2 h 30 of riding and let the distance follow from the terrain and the wind.
To estimate it yourself, use your average speed on similar terrain at that effort, not your best day. Take off a little for every climb, stop and stretch of town on the way.
Match the terrain to the effort
An easy endurance ride needs terrain that lets you stay easy. Long or steep climbs push you above Zone 2 even in your lowest gear. Rolling roads with short rises, valley roads and gentle drags are what you’re after. The Zone 2 guide covers how to ride them without spiking.
A firmer endurance ride, with tempo or a few steady blocks, wants the opposite: a long drag or a steady climb where the blocks can go, and easier roads around them.
Loop or one-way
A loop brings you home and lets you pick where the hard part goes. A one-way ride, to work, to a train station or to meet friends, saves the ride home but gives you less choice of roads. Either works for endurance, as long as the time fits.
Wind and stops
Wind changes the effort as much as the terrain does. On a loop, ride into the wind on the way out while you’re fresh. Every stop costs a restart, so prefer roads with few lights and junctions, and keep town for the start and the end.
When you’re short on time
Under 90 minutes, a pure Zone 2 ride does less than a session with some structure. A few tempo blocks inside an endurance ride give more training for the same time. Keep them on the steadiest part of the route.
Pick how long and how hard
Gritmaps starts from the same two numbers. On the workout page, an Instant workout gives you Gentle, Medium or Hard, and you set the duration in 15-minute steps, from 30 minutes to 4 hours. Gentle is an easy Zone 2 ride, Medium adds tempo blocks and Hard adds efforts around threshold. For a longer base ride, the library has a 90-minute Aerobic Endurance ride, adjustable the same way, and an Endurance + Tempo ride.
Then pick a profile (Major roads, Quiet roads, Smooth gravel, Rough gravel or Mountain), a start, a loop or a one-way finish, and a departure time. The routes are scored on how closely the predicted power, with the wind forecast for your start time, follows the workout, and on how close the estimated time is to the planned duration. For easy riding the target is a ceiling, so a climb that would force you above it costs points and riding below doesn’t. Generating routes is free. Create your free account and plan your next long ride.
